Charity WanderSearch, which provides trackers for at-risk people sees big jump in interest

A charity called WanderSearch has noticed a big increase in interest in devices it provides to help authorities track down vulnerable, missing people in an emergency.

Earlier this month an 81-year old Christchurch woman was found freezing cold and lying in grass, after going missing for four days.

Another Christchurch woman, 79-year-old Elizabeth Nicholls, was found dead at an empty section a year ago after going missing for almost three weeks.

WanderSearch charitable trust provided at-risk people with a small device that could be tracked by police and trained volunteers using specialised equipment if they go missing.

One of those making use of a WanderSearch device was Brittney Smith-Guerin's four-year old daughter Tui.

Tui had been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, was largely non verbal and had global developmental delay - which means she takes longer to reach certain developmental milestones than other children.

Brittney Smith-Guerin said Tui loved to run whenever she got the chance.

"Tui has no sense of danger, she will run at any given opportunity. When we go outside she has to be in a pushchair or we can't really go anywhere. She is an eloper. Whether here at home, at pre-school or out and about, she is always taking the opportunity to try and run."

Smith-Guerin heard about WanderSearch from another parent of a child with autism.

Her daughter had been wearing the device, in the form of a necklace decorated at home with pretty beads, since March.

At their house, Smith-Guerin kept the door bolted and deadlocked to ensure Tui didn't accidentally slip out.

She said the prospect of Tui starting school later this year was daunting, but the WanderSearch device reassured her Tui could be kept safe.

"The thought of her being at a primary school with however many other children and door handles that she can just reach and open, it's just that extra security that if she leaves the premises, at home, or school or wherever that she is found faster.

"She will take the opportunity potentially to run in front of a car, or find a body of water, or not answer to her name if people are out looking for her. She will actively hide. So having that device where they can actually locate her quicker makes me feel a whole lot safer."

WanderSearch's Canterbury programme manager, Emma Parker, said there was about 170 people in the Canterbury region with a device.

"We work with a wide range of ages and a wide range of conditions, dementia, neurodivergent, intellectual disability, but really anybody with a risk of going missing we could supply a device to," Parker said.

Parker said there had been a 30 percent increase in requests for the devices in the last six months.

She said that's likely linked to the growing rates of dementia, but she also suspected recent high-profile cases of elderly people getting lost had drawn attention to the service and pushed worried families to get in touch.

Each year there were about 20 to 30 searches referred to the police of people with WanderSearch devices in the Canterbury region.

"The idea with a device such as WanderSearch is that it will reduce any search and rescue operation for the individual, and it is about reducing carer stress as well," Parker said.

"And maintaining independence for the individual. They want to be able to be as active as possible in their community for as long as possible and with the people they love."

The trust was funded through a range of organisations including Lotto, the Gaming Trust and Rata, but Parker said they would love more stable funding.

She said volunteers were also a crucial part of the organisation.

The volunteers visit each person with a device every six months and check the device, change its battery and update the trust.

They were looking for more volunteers in the Canterbury region.

The search for a person with a WanderSearch device was handled by police and search and rescue.

Canterbury's acting search and rescue coordinator, detective Zeb Harland, said police use a directional receiving device to pick up on the unique radio frequency assigned to the device to find a missing person.

He said it was a bit like what was shown in the movies with a tracking device, with a low slow beep when you are far away which increases in speed as they get closer to the device.

"It is directional, so if you think someone is in a certain direction you can simply test by pushing the (receiving) device either side slightly. And it can get right down to if you are on a street, you stand in front of a house, and one house might have a stronger signal and another next door has a weaker signal... So you can narrow it down quite close," Detective Harland said.

Parker said people do need to meet certain criteria for a WanderSearch device, but she encouraged anyone who thought the device might be of use to get in touch.